The advent of set-top box devices and other media content access devices (“access devices”) has provided users with access to a variety of services (e.g., television services, Internet services, telephone services, etc.). For example, a user may utilize a set-top box device to access broadcast television services, pay-per-view services, video-on-demand services, Internet services, and audio programming services.
However, access devices and/or corresponding service providers inevitably experience technical problems that result in service disruptions for users. The problems may be aggravated if the access devices are incapable of communicating with a service provider's remote systems (e.g., because of or in conjunction with the experienced problems), thereby hindering the service provider's ability to learn of, troubleshoot, and/or resolve the problems that are causing the service disruptions. In order to address the problems and/or service disruptions, users may be forced to make telephone calls directly to the service provider's technical support department, which may result in the users waiting on hold for available technical support agents, interacting with computer-based voice response systems, providing identification information and waiting until the users have been identified by the system/agent, waiting while troubleshooting tests are performed, and/or trying to explain problems that the users may not entirely understand. This process may be inconvenient, burdensome, and/or frustrating for the users, thereby leading to dissatisfaction with the service provider.